Math, Madison, food, the Orioles, books, my kids.

John Lackey stands up for himself

From today’s Shaughnessy:

Is he willing to acknowledge that mistakes were made? “I guess. Sure. They’re being made in every clubhouse in the big leagues, then. If we’d have made the playoffs, we’d have been a bunch of fun guys.’’

He’s right! We think we’re judging people’s behavior, but when we judge in retrospect, we approve and disapprove of the same behaviors, depending on the outcome. See Phil Rosenzweig’s The Halo Effect for the same phenomenon described at book length. A firm’s behavior will invariably be described as “daring” and “bold” when the company is doing well. When the company’s fortunes turn sour, the same set of decisions are retrospectively reclassified as “reckless” and “foolhardy.”